Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 7 September 2010. It became a State Party on 1 March 2011.

National legislative measures to implement and enforce the Convention on Cluster Munitions are being considered.[1]

BiH submitted its initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report on 20 August 2011, covering calendar year 2010. It provided an annual updated Article 7 report on 4 May 2012, covering calendar year 2011.

BiH actively participated throughout the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, making strong contributions based on its experience as a country affected by cluster munitions and declaring a national moratorium on cluster munition use prior to the conclusion of the process.[2]

BiH continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2011 and the first half of 2012. BiH participated in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, with a delegation that included a cluster munition survivor. During the meeting, BiH made several statements on subjects such as clearance, victim assistance, and stockpile destruction, and emphasized its full support of the implementation of the ban convention as both a former producer and victim of cluster munitions.[3] At the meeting, BiH was named co-coordinator on victim assistance together with Austria.

At the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2012, BiH co-chaired the session on victim assistance and made statements on clearance, stockpile destruction, and the retention of cluster munitions.

In August and September 2011, BiH civil society groups commemorated the first anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions with an art exhibit and sporting activities, including a sitting volleyball tournament in Doboj. [4]

BiH is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Interpretive issues

In July 2011, the head of the department of conventional weapons of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the Ministry’s views on a number of issues important for the interpretation and implementation of the convention. On the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts during joint military operations or “interoperability,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that, “under the same Article 21, para 3, we may engage in joint military operations with non-states Parties that might engage in activities prohibited by the Convention, however our personnel or nationals should not provide assistance with activities prohibited by the Convention.”[5]

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the “transit of cluster munitions across, or foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on, the national territory of States Parties is prohibited by the Convention.”[6] The Ministry, however, noted that it does not have “access to or information on weapon types” stockpiled in European Union Force (EUFOR) military bases “on our territory.”[7]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also stated that it considers “investment in the production of cluster munitions to be prohibited.”[8]

Convention on Conventional Weapons

BiH is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

BiH attended the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in Geneva in November 2011, but did not make any statements in its national capacity to express its views on the chair’s draft text of the proposed CCW protocol on cluster munitions. On the final day of the conference, BiH did not join a group of 50 states that issued a joint declaration declaring that there was no consensus on the protocol, which would have allowed for the continued use of cluster munitions.[9]

The Review Conference concluded without agreement on a protocol and there was no proposal for further negotiations in 2012, thus concluding the CCW work on cluster munitions.

Use, production, and transfer

Yugoslav forces and non-state armed groups used available stocks of cluster munitions during the 1992–1995 war. The various entity armies inherited cluster munitions during the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 

BiH has acknowledged that it produced cluster munitions for a period of 11 years and stated in 2007 that production had ceased.[10] In its initial Article 7 report, under “status and progress of programmes for conversion or decommissioning of production facilities,” BiH reported, “There are no production facilities for CM [Cluster Munitions] in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”[11]

BiH produced KB-1 and KB-2 submunitions for the Orkan multi-barrel rocket system and artillery and mortar projectiles.[12] The production capacity included the ability to manufacture KB-series submunitions and integrate them into carrier munitions such as artillery projectiles and rockets.[13] According to Jane’s Information Group, the Ministry of Defense has produced the 262mm M-87 Orkan rocket, with each rocket containing 288 KB-1 dual purpose submunitions.[14] Jane’s also lists BiH Armed Forces as possessing KPT-150 dispensers (which deploy submunitions) for aircraft.[15]

Stockpiling

BiH once possessed a stockpile of 445 cluster munitions and 148,059 submunitions. In its initial Article 7 transparency report provided in August 2011, BiH listed a stockpile of 441 cluster munitions and 147,967 submunitions, of which 429 cluster munitions of three types containing 64,511 submunitions were “in possession of Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina and intended for destruction.”[16] In addition, BiH declared 12 M-87 Orkan 262mm rockets with 78,641 submunitions for this weapon system, and another 4,815 KB-1 and KB-2 submunitions. [17]

In April 2012, BiH informed States Parties that it had discovered four more M-93 120mm mortar projectiles containing 92 submunitions following the initial completion of its stockpile destruction.[18]

Cluster munitions stockpiled by BiH[19]

Destruction

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, BiH was required to destroy all its stockpiled cluster munitions as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2019. In April 2012, a BiH official announced that the country’s stockpile destruction program had been “completed” by the end of 2011.[20]

According to BiH’s initial Article 7 report (August 2011), the 12 M-87 Orkan 262mm rockets were destroyed through disassembly, delaboration, and burning, while a total of 74,721 KB-1 submunitions were destroyed through disassembly and destruction. The destruction took place at two locations on 20 May and 30 June 2011.[21]

According to BiH’s second Article 7 report (April 2012), the 52 M-93 120mm mortar projectiles, 56 M-87 262mm rockets, and 321 BL-755 bombs were destroyed at the Glamoč training ground. In April 2012, BiH stated that the three types of stockpiled cluster munitions were destroyed between August and December 2011 by “open delaboration” at a cost of approximately $850,000, with financial assistance provided by the UNDP.[22]

In April 2012, BiH stated that the four M-93 120mm mortar projectiles were found after the completion of its destruction program and would be “destroyed accordingly.”[23]

Retention

In April 2012, BiH informed States Parties that the “Armed Forces of B-H [BiH] do not intend to keep any cluster munitions for training or research purposes.”[24]